The proximal development zone and the formation of values in the university

Abstract

From the historical and cultural point of view of the Psychology, whose founder, L.S. Vigotsky, developed a conceptual system, according to which the concept of the proximal development zone is considered one of the most relevant of this science. Initially, the concept of the proximal development zone was applied by its creator to the relation between teaching and development, but we consider that it has an evident application to understand the human development and in its context, values formation, key of the education in the university. The objective of our article is to reflect on the applicability of proximal development zone to the values formation in that context. We conceptualize the proximal development concept as an interval between what the subject makes or has acquired and what he is able to achieve on the basis of a helping relation with others. This is an interval full of potentialities for the values development, and also the source for the development of new potentialities. The final objective of an educative project is the auto-determination of the student with respect to the values pretended to be developed and its expression as regulator of his behavior. The development of the project may be concreted in curricular and extra-curricular activities under the direction of the professor, and it demands the process evaluation during its application and at the end.